


The Carnival

by Yukito



Category: Resident Evil - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-25
Updated: 2020-04-25
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:34:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23833966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yukito/pseuds/Yukito
Summary: Who knew a carnival could be so exciting?
Kudos: 5





	The Carnival

**Author's Note:**

> A little bit of AU with the scenario.

The carnival was something new for all of them. Claire couldn’t remember the last time she had got to a fair. She knew she hadn’t been in high school yet. She was thankful that here in Terra she’d be able to give Sherry the experience considering she wasn’t so sure Sherry would have any kind of a good life back home. Claire pushed the thought away as she squeezed Sherry’s hand. Sherry was visibly excited as she held onto Claire and Leon’s hands, happily sandwiched between them. Behind them not too far away were Chris and Jill who were both smiling and seemingly caught up in Sherry’s excitement too. In an hour or so James would be joining them and then their little group of whatever they were would be completed.

~*~

“Okay, okay.” Claire laughed as she took the half-eaten bag of cotton candy away. “If you keep eating that, you’re going to get a stomach ache and not be able to go on any more rides.”

“Claire’s right. And we haven’t done half of them yet.” Leon smiled at the girl, backing Claire up. Sherry seemed to acquiesce and stand up from the bench they had been sitting at. So far they had been having a good time. Chris and Jill went off to go find some ‘real food’ while they had indulged in corn dogs and cotton candy.

“Will you guys go on the gondola with me?” Sherry smiled.

Of course they’d go on the gondola with her.

Up in the gondola, the lights were on as darkness fell and evening set in. Claire kept her eyes out on their surroundings as the open-air ride moved them around in circles. There were a lot of couples in the gondolas this time of the evening and here she was with Sherry and Leon. When Claire snuck a glance over at the young man, she instantly regretted it for the way it made her chest feel. _Focus Claire. Get it together._

They stopped at the top of the gondola and Claire frowned. When she looked over at Leon, she noticed a similar expression on her face. They hadn’t gone around enough times for it to be over. Then they both heard it at the same time - a scream. One scream turned into another and as the three of them looked down over the side of their bucket, they could see people running in panic. 

“What’s going on?” Sherry asked quietly, but obviously worried.

“I don’t know.” Claire was trying to spot the answer.

“Whatever it is, we’re going to be okay.” Leon took at looking at the other side of the gondola when he heard Claire take a sharp inhale.

“Leon.” 

He looked over to where she was pointing and he saw the figure of a man. He was staggering. From here he couldn’t make out any details except that he had seen that sort of mindless walking before. He felt dread shoot down his spine and he bit back a swear.

They were at both an advantage and a disadvantage. For one, they were high up so they would be safe there, but being high up meant you couldn’t escape easily and without supplies, they would die eventually too. 

“There’s more.” Claire watched as more staggering figures - undead for sure - were making their rounds through the carnival. Of course they would end up on the ride that was smack dab in the middle of the whole place. 

Suddenly she heard it, faint at first, but then louder. Her name. It was Chris. She could hear the urgency in his voice and it made her worry for him even more. “Here! We’re up here!”

It took a few more shouts and some waving, considering there were other people stuck on the ride who were also calling for help, but eventually Chris and Jill saw them. Jill covered Chris as he worked on making the ride go again. It figured Jill would bring a gun to a fair - Claire was kind of regretting not doing it now too.

“How bad is it?” Claire asked her brother the moment they hit the ground. Chris had that ‘all business’ look he got when things were dangerous.

“Bad. We need to get out of here now.”

“Any idea how this happened?” Leon had taken Sherry by the hand and looked like he was upset without having a weapon too.

“No idea, but we need to go. I’m almost out of bullets.” Jill glanced at Chris and Chris took point.

Somehow the carnival had been over-run in minutes. That was definitely suspicious and as the five of them moved, it was one of the things weighing heavily on their mind. Leon had managed to get a two-by-four from one of the carnival games which came in handy a few times now, but they had to double back twice thanks to the amount of undead.

 _Why does this feel like a personal attack?_ Claire had the thought just before a hand reached out from behind one of the corners and grabbed her. Sherry screamed her name and everyone turned in time to see Claire disappear into one of the two-story walk-through rides. With no other choice, the rest entered, Leon and Chris in the lead while Jill took up the rear. When they got to the second story, they had to pause.

Chris and Jill recognized the blonde-haired, sunglass-wearing traitor immediately. Wesker had a gun trained on Claire. She looked both pissed off and scared which was a trademark Redfield expression. 

“Let her go, Wesker.” Chris took half a step closer and stopped when Wesker cocked his gun. 

“I will if you give me the girl.”

It dawned on everyone at the same time that he meant Sherry. Leon was the first to speak up, his jaw clenching. “No way!”

Wesker tsked. “It’s a fair trade. Besides, I don’t want to harm the girl. I just have a little experiment for her.”

“Experiment?” Jill couldn’t keep the disgust for Wesker out of her tone. 

“She has unique healing abilities. It seems Umbrella would like to see how far that goes.” Wesker, in all of his confidence, pulled out the high-speed injector with a strange purple liquid already inside of it.

“You’re sick.” Leon glared and it only made Wesker chuckle a little.

Claire was standing there, aware of the movement behind her. After another moment she made eye contact with her brother, the only silent acknowledgement she gave before she spun and took the device from Wesker’s hand. In the same motion, without really thinking, she pressed it to her neck and pulled the trigger. For once Wesker and Chris were on the same page, both yelling ‘ _No_ ’ at the same time alongside Leon who was already barreling toward them. 

“Now you don’t need her.” Claire through the metal device out the window as Leon swung angrily at Wesker who dodged and would have shot him had it not been for Chris throwing the combat knife he kept in his pants at all time. 

“We need to _GO_ ” Jill shouted and the group ran back down the ride, managing to slip out from the emergency exit to a ‘back alley’ of the games in the carnival.

“Why would you do that, Claire? That was so _stupid_!” Chris was clearly angry as they moved.

Leon was in full agreement. “You have no idea what’s in that stuff, what if you -”

“He can’t use it to hurt Sherry and that’s all the matters.” Claire cut them off and tried not to let Sherry’s crying distract her too much. This kid had gone through so much. She deserved to be happy, dammit.

They made it toward the gate entrance. It was just down the main stripe which was oddly quiet. Claire could feel herself becoming a little sluggish, but she pushed herself, not wanting to admit it to the group something was wrong. They didn’t have time for distractions. 

“You okay?” Leon whispered?

Claire took a breath. Leave it to Leon to know something was wrong with her and sound so damned concern. Claire forced a smile. “Yeah. I’m fine.”

They hurried down the main path, passed food trucks and midway games. Just past the gate entrance was the parking lot. Unfortunately as they had started running, more and more infected emerged, gathering and surging toward them as they moved for the cars. They had parked far away, but Jill caught sight of an old van she knew she could hotwire quickly.

Jill, Chris, and Sherry went for the van. Leon and Jill moved to close the gate, but it was stuck. Finally it seemed to give, but Claire hadn’t heard the sound of the engine coming to life yet and she noticed the padlock was on the other side of the gate.

There was no time. They were going to be over-run.

“Got it! Okay, Leon, let’s go!” Claire managed to sound so confident that Leon turned on instinct, only to realize a moment too late he heard the gate again. When he turned back, he shouted Claire’s name louder than he thought possible. 

Claire had slipped on the other side of the gate and was moved to lock it closed with the padlock to give them more time. It locked and she looked over at Leon who had come running back up to the gate. 

“We’ll get you out of there. Claire, you need to climb up, okay?” Leon’s voice was hoarse and panicked.

Claire’s smile was sad, but sincere. “It’s okay, Leon. Really.” Her eyes found his and boy did she wish she could give him one last kiss. Leon only half heard the words ‘I love you’ from Claire as she was overrun by angry hands and mouths and she screamed as she was pulled down and out of sight.

Chris shouted too, only now realizing what was happening as he had been helping Jill who got the van ready. He was about to run out when Jill pulled him back firmly in his seat. “Come on Leon!” Jill shouted the command.

Leon forced himself away from the gate, feeling numb and angry and a million other emotions at the same time. Not another one. Not again.


End file.
